Archive for January, 2010

“A lot of us have seen or lived the organizational chart of the last century,” writes U2 lead singer Bono in today’s New York Times. In that model, he explains, power and influence are concentrated in the uppermost point of the pyramid and pressure is exerted downward.

But in this new century, the pyramid is being inverted, he says. “Increasingly, the masses are sitting at the top, and their weight, via cellphones, the Web and the civil society and democracy these technologies can promote, is being felt by those who have traditionally held power.”

What a clear, concise observations about the economic and political power inherent in social media (and written without using the term – so overused in 2009)!

Here’s to embracing the new “cyber democracy,” and as business communicators, to helping it evolve in ways that improve the clarity, accuracy, overall quality and usefulness of what’s being put out there. As Bono notes elsewhere in his column (read at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/opinion/03bono.html?hp), “Trust in capitalism — we’ll find a way.”